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- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
Although seniors and persons with disabilities are more likely to be victims of serious crimes, these crimes have been historically underreported.
To better address this challenge, in 2019, California enacted Senate Bill 338, The Senior and Disability Justice Act (SB 338) to encourage local law enforcement agencies to adopt comprehensive policies to improve reporting and investigations of disability and elder abuse.
Attorney General Bonta’s advisory reminds these agencies of the requirements under SB 338 and urges each of them to reach compliance as soon as possible to protect the safety of seniors and persons with disabilities statewide.
“Law enforcement has a legal and moral obligation to do all they can to ensure that the rights of seniors and people with disabilities are protected,” said Attorney General Bonta. “When crimes go unreported or are improperly documented, these crimes and their victims remain in the dark. We must provide these victims with the accountability and the justice that they are entitled to. I urge all agencies to review their policies to ensure they are consistent with SB 338 and recognize seniors’ and people with disabilities’ equal protections under the law.”
People with disabilities, including disabilities caused by advanced age, are more likely to be victims of serious crimes, such as abuse, sexual assault, hate crimes, domestic violence, and human trafficking. Nationally, people with disabilities are at least 3.4 times more likely to be victimized by violent crimes than people without disabilities.
People with cognitive disabilities — including intellectual disabilities and dementia— are even more likely to be victims of violent crime, at 5.5 times the rate of people without disabilities.
This is especially concerning in California, where the number of seniors and people with disabilities are rapidly increasing.
In 2019, California enacted SB 338 to draw attention to the wide extent of crimes against seniors and people with disabilities; reinforce that these acts are crimes, not merely civil matters; and strongly encourage every local law enforcement agency to adopt a comprehensive policy concerning these crimes, including effective, accountable, and locally developed protocols for carrying out the agency’s existing responsibilities.
Despite their prevalence, crimes against seniors and persons with disabilities continue to be underreported.
For example, while 40,000 anti-disability hate crimes were estimated to have occurred nationally in 2017, California law enforcement agencies reported just four such incidents in 2017 and seven incidents in 2018.
Moreover, even when senior and disability victimization is reported, the response by law enforcement may be inadequate.
For example, one survey of crime victims with disabilities found that perpetrators were arrested just less than 10% of the time.
The majority of victims— nearly 53%—reported that nothing happened after they reported abuse to the authorities.
The bulletin, issued by the California Department of Justice’s Division of Law Enforcement outlines that municipal police or county sheriffs’ departments that adopt or revise a policy regarding elder and dependent adult abuse or senior and disability victimization on or after April 13, 2021, must include the 28 items stated in Penal Code section 368.6, subdivision (c).
The items provide clear definitions and information on the wide prevalence of crimes against seniors and people with disabilities.
The legislation also requires including provisions related to extensive training on senior and disability victimization, a requirement that officers investigate every report of senior and disability victimization, detailed protocols for handling these crimes, and provisions regarding outreach to the senior and disability communities to encourage reporting and prevention of these crimes.
The bulletin may be viewed here.
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- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. — The Kelseyville Pear Festival, Lake County’s biggest free event, is coming up this week.
On Saturday, Sept. 30, the 29th annual celebration of everything pear will take over Main Street of the “Pear Capital of the World.”
The event normally draws 10,000 to 12,000 attendees, according to organizers.
“I always get excited about the pear festival,” said Pear Festival team member Kim Riley, who organizes the 150 vendors.
“And I love the Grand Parade,” Riley added. “We’re going to have lots of tractors and My Divas will be singing the National Anthem.”
“Our Grand Marshall this year is Rick White,” Pear Festival Team Director Cindy Bain said. “He is a local Realtor and de facto Mayor of Kelseyville. The whole community is extremely grateful for his numerous contributions to town. He does everything … you name it, Rick is involved.”
The parade starts at 9:30 a.m. at State Street and Main at the east end of town and winds up at the Saw Shop at about First Street.
Tractors will be parked after the parade for viewing at the west end of Main Street.
Bain said a few things are changing this year. Kids’ Town, featuring activities for children including pear decoration and two jump houses, will be at a new location. This year it will be located at the old Pioneer Park behind Studebaker’s on Third Street.
Riley noted that among the 150 artisan vendors will be 50 food vendors that offer edible treats from seasonings to beer and everything in between.
“We have people coming back every year to sell their peararphernalia,” she said.
They're going to be many things about pears this year.
Pear ceramics, Bing’s Kitchen is making pear lumpia and there will be pear margaritas, pear shakes at the Presbyterian Church, pear pies, pear tarts and of course five different kinds of pears will be available at the free tasting next to Pogo’s Pizza in the Westamerica parking lot.
Local farmers will be selling organically-grown Bartletts, Abaté Fetel, Bosc, Comice and Rosie Red pears next to the tasting booth.
Among the too-many-to-be-listed features of the Pear Festival are the Lake County Horse Council’s Horse Faire that will include six breeds of horse, a tack swap and varied horse demonstrations throughout the day. The Horse Faire opens at 11 a.m.
The Konocti Art Society fine art show opens at 10:30 a.m. at Westamerica Bank Lobby and the pie-eating contest will be at noon at Pear Square just west of the bank.
The festival hosts several dancing groups including one on horses you’ll see in the parade.
Businesses will remain open during the event.
Bain is focusing her efforts on the opening prequel, the Farm to Fork Dinner that launches the Pear Festival Friday night.
“We’re seating 500 people down main street with a family style dinner prepared by Jeremy Zabel, the chef and owner at Red’s @ the Skyroom,” she said.
The lucky ticket-holders who managed to grab tickets — that sold out in a record 20 minutes almost four months ago — will get to enjoy a beefy menu including a Lake County pear Caesar salad and Lake County pear cake for dessert as well as local wines by Brassfield and Shannon Ridge.
The theme of the dinner this year is “Loving Our Lake.” The Kelseyville High School Interact Club-associated with the Kelseyville Sunrise Rotary Club-will be working the tables at the kickoff dinner.
Dinner is followed by an auction to benefit downtown beautification, followed by a street dance featuring live music by the Funky Dozen.
“If you weren’t able to get tickets this year,” Bain said, “mark June 1, 2024, at 7 a.m. when they go on sale at Eventbrite.
This year’s pear festival included an essay contest with higher dollar prizes for age 18 and under with the first place winner featured in the parade.
The first place winner will receive a check for $250 with second and third places getting $150 and $100 respectively. Winners have been selected and their works will be posted on the Kelseyville Pear Festival Facebook page Tuesday.
There also will be an art contest for fourth and fifth graders, whose selected winners will be prince and princess in the parade.
“We are extremely grateful to our sponsors,” said Bain. “Our grand sponsor this year is Sutter Lakeside Hospital. They provide an extremely important healthcare service to this community.”
Golden Bartlett Sponsors include Adventist Health, Calpine at the Geysers, Konocti Harbor, Reynold’s Systems, Roto Rooter of Lake County, Running Creek Casino, Scully Packing, Strong Financial, TNT storage and Lake County Tribal Health.
Also instrumental to the success of the event are local groups who help manage traffic including Kelseyville High School’s K-Corps as well as the county’s Sea Scouts. Kelseyville High School cheerleaders cleaning tables at the Pear Square, which will again be located at the Westamerica Parking lot.
Bain said that not only does the Pear Festival bring visitors who spend money into Lake County, but it gives youth groups and service clubs a venue.
“I would like to thank the Kelseyville Business Association for their contributions for helping us clean all our sidewalks. They set up our stages and all-around help us to get things going,” Bain said.
“The community has benefited by the additional visitors that come into the county,” Bain added, noting, “a lot of people who have second homes come into the festival and bring all their friends.”
Organizers urge everyone to leave their dogs at home.
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- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
The Lakeport Police Department, city of Lakeport, Lake County Behavioral Health and Lake Family Resource Center will host the town hall from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Soper Reese Theatre, 275 S. Main St., Lakeport.
The event will be live streamed on the LPD YouTube channel for those unable to attend in person.
There will be live question and answer sessions throughout the presentations.
The Lakeport Police Department will also respond to questions after the meeting to those who leave contact information.
The presenters are not able to interact with viewers on the YouTube channel; however, questions may be entered in the comments section of the video feed for responses after the meeting.
Questions may also be submitted via email to
A public survey link will be released after the meeting providing equal access to everyone attending in person, watching online, and those who were not able to participate in the town hall and have questions or want to offer feedback.
The intent of the public meeting is to engage with the community. Homelessness and mental illness are complex issues requiring the collaboration of agencies and the community.
The agenda will include an overview of legislative and voter changes to criminal justice laws over the past decade that impact treatment of individuals, response to mental illness locally, and the constraints faced by agencies in rural areas.
Presenters will discuss the status of the crisis responder program operated cooperatively by Lakeport Police and the Lake Family Resource Center.
Please contact Chief Brad Rasmussen at the Lakeport Police Department at 707-263-5491 for more information.
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- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
On Tuesday, tribal leaders, victims, law enforcement and lawmakers gathered for the latest in a series of statewide meetings to consider how a new tool – the Feather Alert – will work to help law enforcement quickly notify the public about missing Native Americans and enlist their aid.
The law that enacted the Feather Alert, AB 1314, took effect in January and was authored by Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-San Bernardino), the first and only California Native American elected to the legislature.
The Feather Alert is similar to the AMBER and Silver alert systems which notify the public about missing children and when elderly, developmentally, or cognitively-impaired persons are missing.
Ramos and representatives from the California Highway Patrol, the Department of Justice and local and tribal law enforcement participated in a roundtable discussion at the Los Angeles County Office of Education on Tuesday about when and how the alert is activated.
Ramos has conducted three other such gatherings in Madera, San Bernardino and Mendocino counties.
“A common misconception is that most Native Americans live on reservations, but more than 70 percent of them live in urban areas. Close to 328,000 Native Americans live in the Los Angeles area. It has the greatest number of Native Americans in the state and the greatest number in any county in the United States according to the LA Native American Indian Commission,” Ramos said.
Ramos added that between 1999 and 2019, homicide was the third-leading cause of death among American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls.
On reservations, the homicide rate for Native American women is 10 times the national average. “These Feather Alert roundtables help to ensure that law enforcement and tribal communities know about this new tool so we can change the shameful statistics,” Ramos said.
“It gets too easy to cite these staggering statistics,” Ramos said. “The Feather Alert will aid law enforcement and families in getting the word out quickly when a Native individual is missing or endangered by alerting the public in a broad and effective manner. Colorado and Washington state also approved similar alerts last year. Creating an alert or advisory system was a top recommendation from tribal leaders for dealing with the disproportionate number of missing Native Americans, particularly women and girls.”
Ramos also noted that California, the state with the greatest population of Native Americans in the nation, is also among the states with the highest rates of reported cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, or MMIP.
Ramos observed that Northern California has been hard hit in cases of missing Indigenous people.
In April, the Round Valley Indian Tribes in Mendocino County declared a state of emergency after two of their members were found murdered.
The Yurok Tribe, in the Humboldt region issued a similar declaration last year.
Feather alert criteria
To activate the Feather Alert, the following criteria that must be met:
• Missing person is an indigenous woman or an indigenous person.
• The investigating law enforcement agency has utilized available local and tribal resources.
• The local law enforcement agency determines that the person has gone missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances.
• The local law enforcement agency believes that the person is in danger because of age, health, mental or physical disability, or environment or weather conditions, that the person is in the company of a potentially dangerous person, or that there are other factors indicating that the person may be in peril.
• Information is available that, if disseminated to the public, could assist in the safe recovery of the missing person.
Other California public alert systems
In California, the Feather Alert joins these other special notifications overseen by the CHP:
• The AMBER Alert, which stands for America’s Missing Broadcast Emergency Response is used when children age 17 or younger have been abducted. It has been in use since 2002.
• The Blue Alert, approved in 2011, notifies the public when a suspect in the assault or killing of a police officer remains at large and the search is active.
• The Silver Alert, used when elderly, developmentally or cognitively-impaired persons are missing and are determined to be at-risk. Adopted as the top priority of the California Senior Legislature in October 2011, it was enacted through SB 1047, legislation introduced by state Sen. Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara) and Sen. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana). The bill was approved in 2012 and went into effect in 2013.
• The general endangered missing advisory is used when an individual is missing under unexplained or suspicious, and is believed to be in danger due to issues with age, physical and mental health issues, weather, being with a potentially dangerous person or other circumstances.